Revolution Bar & Grill

Listen to crunk and knock back Robitussin (half off!) at the Experience Music Project's restaurant.

Fate was not kind to Turntable Restaurant, the former inhabitant of the Experience Music Project's Revolution Bar & Grill space, but new owners Schwartz Bros. are determined to have staying power. It may already be working: At a Monday late-night happy hour (9:30–midnight daily, following one at 4:30–6:30 p.m.), the bar wasn't exactly deserted. We sat in Revolution's colorful upstairs loft, which is decorated with back-in-the-day screen prints from local shows and uses bleachers for footrests—a nod to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video? According to our bartender, the teens of today are listening to crunk while knocking back Robitussin. My "Grape Crush," with grape vodka and Chambord ($4.95), tasted like the stuff, so I followed it with a $2.95 Hoegaarden (one of 50 beers on tap), a better pairing with my plump popcorn shrimp ($6). My writer friend's salt & pepper calamari ($4.95) were unremarkable but edible; her "'Lemon Song' Drop" ($4.95) weakly delicious. Local video programmers ScreenPlay supply the bar TVs' never-ending loop, which once followed the Shins' "New Slang" with New Found Glory. There's half-off sushi and pizza, but we were too busy geeking out to sample them. EMP's annual Pop Conference may be over, but Revolution is the perfect place to utilize your best rockcrit vocab while pondering the mellifluous qualities of Jeff Buckley's voice, how to pronounce oeuvre, and whether or not the Get Up Kids can be said to have one. Our professional opinion? Nah. RACHEL SHIMP